Saturday, April 30, 2016

In an April 28, 2016 letter to Columbia University President Lee Bollinger, the Columbia and Barnard student group that is campaigning for an end to the Columbia University administration's policy of owning stock in U.S.-based transnational corporations that profit from their investments in an Israeli economy whose government continues to violate Palestinian human rights and democratic national self-determination rights--Columbia University Apartheid Divest--stated the following:

"April 28, 2016

"To the Advisory Committee on
Socially Responsible Investing and President Bollinger,

"In 1784, the Columbia community
renamed King’s
College in order to speak to the independence of the nascent U.S. American
nation-state. Columbia University emerges from a historical moment that, to
this day, continues to structure and inform our
relations to this land and its original peoples, the Lenape Nation. Leading
up to that moment and to this day, Columbia University has been invested in the
practices of settler-colonial occupation.

"We are students representing Columbia University Apartheid
Divest, a campaign launched by Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine
and Barnard/Columbia Jewish Voice for Peace. We call on the University to
divest its stocks, funds, and endowment from companies that profit from the
State of Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian human rights
through its ongoing system of settler colonialism, military occupation, and
apartheid. This campaign directly responds to a choice made by Palestinian civil society to
call for international solidarity.

"Our demands carry the voices of over
a thousand community members, including 601 undergraduate students, 190
graduate students, 103 alumni, 75 faculty, and 12 staff members, who have
attached their name to our petition, as well
as the expressed endorsement of
the following groups representing a diversity of Columbia community members:
Barnard-Columbia Socialists, Columbia Divest for Climate Justice, Columbia
Muslim Students Association, Columbia Queer Alliance, Columbia University Black
Students’ Organization, Columbia University Turath, Divest Barnard from Fossil
Fuels, GendeRevolution, No Red Tape, and Student-Worker Solidarity.

"We are writing to you, knowing of
and trusting in President Bollinger's
stated vision of Columbia as a "Global University." In order
to uphold a commitment to this vision, the trustees and administration must
fulfill their role not only by accepting students from all over the world, but
also by taking a stand against regimes that violate basic human rights and the
structures by which they are supported. This call extends to Columbia
recognizing its past and present role as a colonial institution, one that was
built through
the practice of slaveryand one that continues in a city founded on
broken treaties, and its present complicity in gentrification and
displacement through its rapid
expansion into Manhattanvile. Given Columbia’s recent divestment from the
US private prison system, we are encouraged by the precedent our University
community has set by denouncing racial profiling and disproportionate standards
of prosecution.

"Our institution should not be considered separate from those
affected by and complicit in Israeli
human rights violations; impacted communities include students, academics,
people of color, indigenous people, religious and gender minorities, refugees,
Israelis, and Palestinians both in Palestine and its diaspora. Columbia's
investment in corporations that profit from Israeli apartheid has communicated
to us that the fundamental dignity and worth of these communities is not the
priority of this university.

"One such company in which the
University is directly invested is Doosan Infracore co. Ltd., whose products
include construction equipment used to build at least one illegal settlement in
the West Bank, the Leshem
settlement. Doosan also owns the Bobcat Company,
whose machinery was used in the construction of
the apartheid
wall and multiple security checkpoints along the wall. Other
University investments show us that divestment from human rights violations is
not only moral, but can also be economically
successful. The University is currently directly invested in CRH PLC, a
corporation which chose
to divest from Israel in 2015. CRH has reported a strong
post-divestment growth in profit, highlighting the feasibility of making
socially responsible and still profitable investment decisions.

"The Advisory Committee's annual
reports indicate a continued commitment to ensure that the University's
investments meet specific social and moral standards. Your audits of these
investments with respect to the private prison industry are a commendable
instance of this commitment. We believe that this commitment also requires
consideration of the human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories of the
West Bank and Gaza, abuses associated with and perpetrated by companies in
which we may be invested.

"In light of this, faculty members
across various departments presented a proposal in 2002 calling for an end to
our investment in all firms that supplied Israel's military with arms and
military hardware. Students, alumni, faculty, and staff all agreed to attach
their name to the 2002 proposal, hoping that our institution would end their
complicity in Israel's use of asymmetrical and excessive violence against
Palestinian civilians. In the 14 years since this proposal was rejected, Israel
has ramped up its violence towards these civilians and its illegal settlement
practices to levels unimaginable, even in 2002. We thus call upon you now to
not only hold our university to a higher moral standard, but to consider
Israel's apartheid system in all its forms, including those that do not involve
the direct use of the State's military apparatus, but nonetheless severely
violate the rights of Palestinians and the prescriptions of international law.

"In asking for divestment, we join a
growing international movement that has heeded the Palestinian call for
solidarity. Already, the
Presbyterian Church of the United States has divested from Motorola
Solutions, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, and Caterpillar. The
United Methodist Church and the World Council of Churches have followed suit in
divesting from other companies complicit in Israeli apartheid. Student bodies
in the University of California system (Berkeley, Irvine, Riverside, San Diego,
Santa Cruz, Los Angeles), Loyola University, University of Chicago,
Northwestern University, the University of South Florida, and Stanford
University have supported divestment. Students and workers at neighboring
institutions such as City University of New York and New York University have
voted to support divestment. In this context, we demand:

"1.More transparency
regarding Columbia’s investments. Columbia University has failed to make
available and accessible the 10% of its investments (direct holdings) to which
the public is entitled knowledge. Additionally, information about the region
and sector of the full endowment, and remaining 90% (indirect holdings), should
be made available to all members of our community in the spirit of transparency
and mutual accountability to which the University should be held pursuant and
for which the ACSRI was created.

"2.That research be done
on all holdings (direct and indirect) in order to determine if they are
complicit in Israeli practices that are illegal under international law.
Furthermore, we request the public availability of this research, in pursuit of
a socially responsible commitment to transparency and neutrality.

"3.That the University
immediately divest from such companies and make a public statement confirming
divestment. Columbia must adopt a negative screen for these companies, to
confirm that Columbia will not invest in these companies until they cease their
operations in and profits from Israeli apartheid, or until the State of Israel
dismantles its apartheid wall and occupation, promotes the rights of
Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality, and allows Palestinian
refugees to return as demanded by the larger Boycott, Divestment, and
Sanctions solidarity movement in which our campaign is embedded.

"We would like to meet with President
Bollinger and other heads of the administration in order to discuss the double
standard posed by the dissonance between Columbia's ideals and its current
investment in Israeli settler-colonialism. Columbia University Apartheid Divest
looks forward to engaging with your Advisory Committee in person and commencing
this process.

Monday, April 25, 2016

(chorus)There's a filthy rich school in CambridgeAnd across the Charles River, tooIt got rich by evading taxesAnd that's How Harvard Rules.(verses)Enron ripped off consumers and engaged in accounting fraudWhile a top Enron executive sat on Harvard's boardA policy group at Harvard got big money from EnronTo produce biased research that backed no regulationAnd before Enron went bankrupt and its executives were sent to jailEnron paid Harvard profs to say "Enron is doing well." (chorus)Harvard's Center for Risk Analysis gets sixty percent of its fundsFrom chemical, drug and oil firms like Monsanto, Lilly and ExxonDioxin, driver cell phones and second-hand smoke, Harvard claimed it "posed no risk"Since Dioxin producers, AT & T and Phillip Morris also gave Harvard gifts. (chorus)Harvard claims to be "non-profit" yet it owns billions in corporate stockAnd hundreds of acres of real estate and a New Zealand lumber forestHarvard Law and Harvard Business School are money-making machinesAnd Harvard's money managers get $20 million dollars annually. (chorus)If you're a janitor at Harvard, you don't get a living wageAnd they'll try to bust your union if you're a workers who shows some rageYet Harvard Corporation is run by billionairesAnd if you didn't go to prep school, they prefer you don't study thereExcluded by its admissions office: 90 percent of applicantsYet only Harvard graduates control the Supreme Court. (chorus)The Harvard Corporation it meets so secretlyWith all minutes kept secret except from the seven trusteesIt secretly picks a president who won't challenge corporate greedSo Microsoft gives millions for a new engineering buildingHarvard secretly bought up real estate in Boston's Allston neighborhoodAnd drove out working-class tenants so Harvard's campus can expand. (chorus)

Monday, April 18, 2016

In an April 15, 2016 opinion piece that appeared in Columbia Daily Spectator, two of the students participating in the Spring 2016 sit-in protest inside Columbia University's Low Library administration building--Ricardo De Luca, E Tuma and Lucas Zeppetello--explained why their student climate action group decided to peacefully occupy Low Library:

"To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest,' Mahatma Gandhi wrote. That is one of the reasons members of Columbia Divest for Climate Justice and Divest Barnard are currently engaged in a peaceful sit-in in front of President Bollinger’s office. Members of the Barnard Columbia Solidarity Network rallied in tandem on Low Plaza this past Thursday. As a result, the subject of divestment from fossil fuel companies has catapulted to the forefront of Columbia’s campus consciousness.

"After four years of campaigning and engaging with administrative channels, we are demanding that President Bollinger immediately recommend divestment from the Carbon Underground 200 list of fossil fuel companies to the board of trustees.

"We do not know what the outcome of our protest will be, if and how students will be arrested, and whether or not our demands will be met before we are removed. We were well aware of these risks when we planned and initiated this action. In the end, President Bollinger will either commit to recommending divestment and stand with us, or refuse and show his de facto support of the fossil fuel industry’s policy of profit over people. In the coming days, we will see which side President Bollinger is on.

"Civil disobedience is the act of deliberately refusing to comply with certain rules as a form of peaceful protest against the authorities that created them. While our actions may be characterized as `disruptive,' the disruption caused by our sit-in is nothing compared to the disruption already being caused by climate change. As young people, we have an obligation to denounce an industry with a business plan reliant upon destroying our planet and communities.

"When Columbia divests, it will join hundreds of institutions with over $3 trillion in assets under management that have divested since 2012. Although Yale announced partial divestment on Tuesday, we would be the first Ivy League University to fully divest from the Carbon Underground 200 and lead the way for other educational institutions. Divesting from coal alone is not sufficient: We must end our use of this outdated technology to stop climate change.

"The decision to sit in was not taken lightly. It is the culmination of more than three years of campaigning, including raising awareness on campus and engaging in talks with the University administration. We have gathered thousands of student and alumni petition signatures and hundreds of faculty signatures; garnered a vote in favor of divestment in the first ever Columbia College referendum; had exasperating meetings with the Advisory Commission on Socially Responsible Investing; and even met with President Bollinger and members of the board of trustees themselves—a relatively unprecedented phenomenon for a student group—all to no avail.

"Opposition to our demand has centered on the incorrect claim that divesting could threaten to drain the University's financial and human resources. President Bollinger has told members of CDCJ that divestment will not hurt the endowment and that he believes climate change is an important issue, but now it is time to act. When decision-makers lack courage, we must summon our own, take action, and fight for what we believe is right.

"By occupying Low Library, we are stating that this space also belongs to us, the students, and that our concerns and our future should always be at the center of the University’s decision-making processes, and not a marginal inconvenience. We are dissolving the distance between us and President Bollinger, created by so many levels of bureaucracy and ritual. Only a simple truth remains: President Bollinger must use his power to stand against an existential threat long confirmed by the scientific community.

"Climate change is not a problem of technology or of economics; it is a problem of society and culture. The belief in unlimited resources and unrestricted growth is imbued deep in our financial systems. The far-reaching nature of this catastrophe, both in time and space, make causal links and ethical responsibilities hard to discern. However, fossil fuel companies commit clear injustices, and it is unjustifiable for us, as members of such a privileged and influential institution, to benefit from investment in them.

"When those who are meant to lead us have failed and ignored our demands, the responsibility falls on each of us to confront the issue at hand. When the University is compliant with an industry that kills activists, disseminates misinformation, and damages the global climate for private profit, students cannot remain inactive and accept things as they are. In this sit-in, we confront President Bollinger’s neglect.

"The mood in Low right now is one of real courage. We do not know what consequences we will face for choosing to remain in Low Library until President Bollinger recommends full divestment to the board of trustees. To be sure, we are concerned for our own academic, disciplinary, and police records. But those fears pale in comparison to the resolve we have to fight for what we know is right, and to remain focused on getting Columbia’s money completely out of the fossil fuel industry."

Monday, March 21, 2016

A biographical folk song from the early 1980s about the Beat Generation of the late 1940s and 1950s(chorus)Kerouac and CassadyLoved the road, tried to be freeKerouac and CassadyEscaped the claws of McCarthy.(verses)Kerouac walked through the cold town of LowellHis mother wished him to succeedHe came to New York, fell into a sceneAnd started to write and to write endlessly.Cassady lived for the moment intenseMadly he drove in from DenverTheir own little world of excitementCreated with the help of their friends. (chorus)Outside all the cold organizationsAway from the meaningless moldInstead they slept late and partied, got stonedAnd searched for the love and the bold.Cassady lived it out, while Kerouac wrote it downThe new song of the open roadOut to the Coast and back east againWith women to love at each end. (chorus)They fell for each other, while living unknownAnd whiskey helped ease Jack's painAnd long overdue fame struck KerouacAnd he knew not what more he should say.Their lives fell apart and Neal was framed upAnd Kerouac lost himself in his boozeHe moved to the right to protect his new wealthAnd his Beat friends all moved out of sight. (chorus)A lonely old man right at the endWith nothing new to write or to loveHis myth and his legend are revived againBy people whose spirits are eternally young.(chorus)

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Nearer and nearer drew this day, dear comrade,When I from you sadly partDay after day, a dark foreboding sorrowCrept through my anxious heart.No more to see you striding down the pathway,Nor more to see your smiling eyes and faceNo more to hear your gay and pealing laughterNo more to feel your love, in this sad place.How I will miss you, words will fail to utter,I am alone, my thoughts unshared these weary days,I feel bereft and empty, on this dreary, gray morning,Facing my lonely future, hemmed by prison ways.Sometimes I feel you've never been in Alderson,So full of life, so detached from here you seem,So proud of walk, of talk, of work, of being,Your presence here is like a fading dream.Yet as the sun shines now, through fog and darkness,I feel a sudden joy that you are gone,That once again you walk the streets of Harlem,That today for you at least is Freedom's dawn.I will be strong in our common faith, dear comrade,I will be self-sufficient, to our ideals firm and true,I will be strong to keep my mind and soul outside a prison,Inspired by ever loving memories of you.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

In early February 2016, the Columbia University Apartheid Divest student group stated the following in its initial press release:

"It is against the backdrop of Columbia and Barnard students’ history of moral commitment to social, political, and economic justice that we, as members of Columbia University Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, come together as Columbia University Apartheid Divest to call for the University to divest its stocks, funds, and endowment from companies that profit from the State of Israel’s ongoing system of settler colonialism, military occupation, and apartheid law. This campaign is embedded in the larger Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement directed toward the State of Israel until it complies with international law by:

"1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantling the Wall; 2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.

"On June 22nd 2015, the Columbia University Board of Trustees voted to sell its stocks in Corrections Corporation of America and G4S, making Columbia the first academic institution in the United States to divest from the private prison industry. This victory, achieved through the tireless work of Columbia Prison Divest, inspired in student organizers a renewed dedication to hold the Columbia administration accountable for maintaining global systems of oppression.

"This was not, however, the first of such movements. On October 7th 1985, under the pressure of student activists, the Board of Trustees voted to sell $41 million of its endowment investments in American companies with ties to South Africa. In doing so, Columbia became the first Ivy League university to divest from Apartheid South Africa.

"By investing in such companies, Columbia actively supports Israel’s continued occupation of and assaults against the Palestinian people, including the most recent military operation on the Gaza Strip which claimed over 2,104 Palestinian lives, including 1,462 civilians, of whom 495 were children and 253 women, according to the UN. The Israeli Defense Forces use technologies such as F-16 fighter jets, GBU-9 small diameter bombs, and Apache helicopters produced by Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing. These companies directly profit from the ceaseless military violence faced by Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, as well as the Syrian Golan Heights.

"Columbia students are implicated through the University’s investments in these same companies. The movements to divest from the prison industrial complex and Apartheid South Africa have shown us that divestment at Columbia is an effective way of ending our institutional complicity in global systems of oppression. In both movements, it was a coalition of activists on campus that courageously spoke truth to power and challenged our institution to maintain its principles of human dignity. Columbia University Apartheid Divest is inspired by this legacy.

"We demand that Columbia University end its investments in Israeli Apartheid.

"We call upon the Columbia community to support Palestinian human rights.